Refundable Bookings filter excludes listings with firm cancellation policy

[Bradley20]

This is for all hosts who use the 'firm' cancellation policy.

With so much talk of guests wanting more flexibility, I recently changed my cancellation policy from 'strict' to 'firm' (fully refundable up to 30 days before the stay.)

This is risky for me as the nature of my property in Phuket is that most guests book 6-12 month in advance and I'm unlikely to be able to  replace a cancellation with less than 3months. 

But with Airbnb's 'free cancellation' filter I expected that anyone searching with specific dates would then see my listing and I could reasomably hope for more views, enquiries and, potentially,  bookings. Maybe worth the risk of an occasional cancellation.

Except that's not how it works. Even though my listing is fully refundable, I've found that listings with a 'firm' cancellation policy is excluded from search results when the 'free cancellation' filter is on.

This issue is certainly affecting Thailand but I think this issue extends across the whole platform. I did some searches in US and found exactly the same thing.

Has anyone else noticed this or reported it? 

If you're using the firm policy, it's worth checking if your property is in or out with the 'free cancellation filter on. If it's not appearing, please report it!

I've tried reporting this to Airbnb Support but getting nowhere (the quality of support seems to be getting worse of late).

As things stand, guests who are searching for and filter for a refundable listing think that they're seeing all the available options but the'yre not. The impact on us hosts is clearly negative.

Is this a glitch (hopefully) or a specific implementation decision by Airbnb to offer only the properties with the most flexible cancellation policies to guest using the filter?

Let's assume it's a glitch; what's the best way to get Airbnb to correct their filter?

Thanks.

Bradley

[Breanna]

Hi @Bradley20 

It sounds like you're really taking the needs of guests into consideration!

We have some very experienced hosts, @Mike-And-Jane0  and @Helen3, who might be able to offer you some advice about your question. 

[Bradley20]

Hi @Breanna , thanks for getting back to me and putting me in touch with @Branka-and-Silvia0  and @Helen3 

[Helen3]

My understanding is that only hosts who offer a flexible cancellation policy would come up if a guest was to specifically search with a 'free cancellation' filter. But do give Airbnb a call and check with them @Bradley20 

Personally I wouldn't worry about it I very much doubt that many guests use the cancellation free filter. I've been hosting for eight years and didn't even know it is a thing 🙂

[Bradley20]

Thanks @Helen3 

You make a good point that people who are not searching for properties with a fully refundable cancellation probably don't even know that there's a filter for that.

Presumably, it's important enough to some guests for Airbnb to include it in their filter function.  and it's these potential guests who I think are being misled by the wording  'Only show stays that offer free cancellation'.

Based on Article 3043, they are only being shown listings with the most flexible cancellation policy and NOT all the listings that offer free cancellation.

That's a huge deal for listings like mine where guest usually book many months in advance. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0 · Accepted solution]

from https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3043

 

Search for more flexible cancellation policies

 

.... You can search for listings that offer a full refund if you end up needing to cancel, even if it’s close to your departure date.

To use this filter, simply enter your destination and travel dates. On the listings page you can select the cancellation filter to show only listings that offer:

• A full refund of nightly rate if you cancel at least 1 day prior to arrival, or,
• A full refund of nightly rate if you cancel at least 5 days prior to arrival

  You can see the specific cancellation policy your Host has set on their listing before you book which will tell you ...

[Bradley20]

Hi @Branka-and-Silvia0 

Thanks for this link which is really helpful.

It looks like guests who turn on the filter 'free cancellation' that  'Only show stays that offer free cancellation' will not see all the listings that offer a free cancellation.

Airbnb intentionally excludes listings with a firm cancellation policy even though these are fully refundable.

Unless searching guests read Article 3043, they would reasonably assume that they are seeing all refundable properties.

My property is a 6 bedroom villa in Phuket and guests usually book 6-12 months in advance. For guests booking so far in advance, a fully refundable policy is a big deal. It's why I switched from 'strict' to 'firm'. Virtually all my guests are flying long-haul in large groups and the firm policy meets their needs.

Unfortunately, the misleading 'free cancellation' filter means that potential guests won't get to see my listing or many of the others in Phuket and other long-haul destinations where hosts usually have strict or firm cancellation policies.

It's a lose-lose for guests and hosts.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

Bradley, tnx for the heads up.... I didn't even know this filter exists .

And yes, you are right.... all of us have "free cancelation" , the only difference is how long before the booking starts

I am not sure if Airbnb is aware of this misleading wording or if they are aware and did it on purpose, to force hosts to be more flexible with their policies.
But yes, it is not fair, neither to guests nor to hosts.

Regarding your listing.... if most hosts in your area have strict and firm policies then the guest will have to turn off some filters to get any results. Or they will not turn the filters and will assume that Airbnb doesn't have a place for them and will go searching on Booking.com and other platforms. Maybe you could list there too.

[Bradley20]

Hi @Branka-and-Silvia0 ,

You're absolutely right; it's not just guests & hosts losing out, it's also Airbnb. 

I also list with Vrbo and use their strict cancellation policy (100% refund up to 60 days before stay). My property still appears in searches with their 'Free Cancellation' filter on. 

I thought it would be interesting to quantify the impact of Airtbnb’s filter on results so I searched for a 1 week stay in January for a property in Phuket that can accommodate 12 guests. 

Airbnb search returns 289 properties which reduces to just 48 with the ‘Free Cancellation’ filter on. 

Interestingly, conducting the same search on Vrbo returns only 85 properties (less than 1/3 than Airbnb). However, 63 of these are included with the ‘Free Cancellation’ filter on. 

So, despite Airbnb having the commercial advantage of more than 3 times the number of properties thant Vrbo in Phuket, they present fewer properties than Vrbo to guests using the platform's ‘Free Cancellation’ filter.

When I clicked on a selection of those 298 properties on Airbnb, many do offer free cancellation but don’t appear in the filtered results!

Airbnb is really shooting itself in the foot in the way it’s implementing this filter!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

Oh Bradley, Airbnb is constantly shooting itself in a foot in sooo many ways!

Not so long ago this CC was very active and we all tried very hard to help ABB to become a better place. At that time, your post would have at least 50 comments if not more.... But our suggestions,  ideas, appeals and warnings about such glitches were ignored so we just gave up.

[Bradley20]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

That's sad to hear although very much in line with my experience of Airbnb over the last year or so....

-more policies that disadvantage hosts (the latest is the new host cancellation policy that will be implemented from next month. I'm turning off 'instant book' as a direct result of that and I suspect many other hosts will do the same.

-quality of Airbnb Support was never good but it's but it's now useless with frustration guaranteed.

-insight/metrics does not seem to be working (2 Airbnb support agents I've communicated with have confirmed that but insist it's now working. I'm not convinced

-currently 6-8 weeks for manual review of photos to add accessibility-related amenities

[Breanna]

Hi @Branka-and-Silvia0. Hope you're doing well 😊

Just wanted to stop by and say that we are always listening and noting Host feedback to pass over to the Airbnb teams. We absolutely value all of your commentary and it has always helped the CC team and Airbnb to understand the diverse perspectives from Hosts about various features.

We appreciate all the opinions and feedback you and other Hosts continue to share on the Community Center.